Denver DA Backtracks on Med MJ Murder Claims

During a meeting of the Denver, CO City Council on Monday, July 29, to determine whether voters should approve a five percent sales tax for recreational marijuana sales, the Mile High City's District Attorney Mitch Morrissey shifted the propaganda machine into full throttle. He claimed that his office has investigated "twelve homicides related directly to medical marijuana," including "a double-execution-style" murder of two dispensary operators, along with "over 100 aggravated robberies and home invasion," all apparently attributable to the medicinal cannabis biz.

But just one day later, Morrissey admitted the number of homicides he presented to the City Council were "loose figures" and that actually no homicides had actually occurred in any medical pot locales.

Naturally, medical marijuana entrepreneurs objected to Morrissey's spurious account, including Michael Elliott of the Medical Marijuana Industry Group, who told the Denver Post: "All of this violence associated with marijuana is being blamed on the good players. The implication is that it is our [the industry's] fault."

Continuing to beat a dead horse, on Tuesday, Morrissey's office sent out an email claiming that since 2007 there have been nine marijuana related homicides. (What happened to twelve?) But when the Post followed up, the paper discovered that the cases involved home invasions -- with none taking place in medical pot dispensary storefronts.

Morrissey may have revealed the true motivation for his reefer madness: he said his office will need more funding in order to prosecute crimes associated with the emerging recreational pot industry, as retail outlets will open on January 1.

Legalization may have dawned, but Morrissey's perspective on cannabis remains in the Dark Ages. Won't legal pot reduce crime and make his job easier?

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